At times they saw him, by a phenomenon of vision or locomotion, abolish space in its two forms of Time andDistance; the former being intellectual space, the other physical space.Intellectual History of Louis Lambert.On an evening in the month of November, 1793, the principal persons of Carentan were assembled in the salonof Madame de Dey, where they met daily. Several circumstances which would never have attracted attention ina large town, though they greatly preoccupied the little one, gave to this habitual rendezvous an unusual interest.For the two preceding evenings Madame de Dey had closed her doors to the little company, on the ground thatshe was ill. Such an event would, in ordinary times, have produced as much effect as the closing of the theatresin Paris; life under those circumstances seems merely incomplete. But in 1793, Madame de Dey's action waslikely to have fatal results. The slightest departure from a usual custom became, almost invariably for thenobles, a matter of life or death. To fully understand the eager curiosity and searching inquiry which animatedon this occasion the Norman countenances of all these rejected visitors, but more especially to enter intoMadame de Dey's secret anxieties, it is necessary to explain the role she played at Carentan. The criticalposition in which she stood at this moment being that of many others during the Revolution the sympathies andrecollections of more than one reader will help to give color to this narrative.Madame de Dey, widow of a lieutenant-general, chevalier of the Orders, had left the court at the time of theemigration. Possessing a good deal of property in the neighborhood of Carentan, she took refuge in that town,hoping that the influence of the Terror would be little felt there. This expectation, based on a knowledge of theregion, was well-founded. The Revolution committed but few ravages in Lower Normandy. Though Madamede Dey had known none but the nobles of her own caste when she visited her property in former years, she nowfelt it advisable to open her house to the principle bourgeois of the town, and to the new governmentalauthorities; trying to make them pleased at obtaining her society, without arousing either hatred or jealousy.Gracious and kind, gifted by nature with that inexpressible charm which can please without having recourse tosubserviency or to making overtures, she succeeded in winning general esteem by an exquisite tact; thesensitive warnings of which enabled her to follow the delicate line along which she might satisfy the exactionsof this mixed society, without humiliating the touchy pride of the parvenus, or shocking that of her own friends.Then about thirty-eight years of age, she still preserved, not the fresh plump beauty which distinguishes thedaughters of Lower Normandy, but a fragile and, so to speak, aristocratic beauty. Her features were delicate andrefined, her figure supple and easy. When she spoke, her pale face lighted and seemed to acquire fresh life. Herlarge dark eyes were full of affability and kindness, and yet their calm, religious expression seemed to say thatthe springs of her existence were no longer in her.Married in the flower of her age to an old and jealous soldier, the falseness of her position in the midst of acourt noted for its gallantry contributed much, no doubt, to draw a veil of melancholy over a face where thecharms and the vivacity of love must have shone in earlier days. Obliged to repress the naive impulses andemotions of a woman when she simply feels them instead of reflecting about them, passion was still virgin inthe depths of her heart. Her principal attraction came, in fact, from this innate youth, which sometimes,however, played her false, and gave to her ideas an innocent expression of desire. Her manner and appearancecommanded respect, but there was always in her bearing, in her voice, a sort of looking forward to someunknown future, as in girlhood. The most insensible man would find himself in love with her, and yet berestrained by a sort of respectful fear, inspired by her courtly and polished manners. Her soul, naturally noble,but strengthened by cruel trials, was far indeed from the common run, and men did justice to it. Such a soulnecessarily required a lofty passion; and the affections of Madame de Dey were concentrated on a singlesentiment,--that of motherhood. The happiness and pleasure of which her married life was deprived, she foundin the passionate love she bore her son. She loved him not only with the pure and deep devotion of a mother, but

with the coquetry of a mistress, and the jealousy of a wife. She was miserable away from him, uneasy at hisabsence, could never see him enough, and loved only through him and for him. To make men understand thestrength of this feeling, it suffices to add that the son was not only the sole child of Madame de Dey, but alsoher last relation, the only being in the world to whom the fears and hopes and joys of her life could be naturallyattached.The late Comte de Dey was the last surviving scion of his family, and she herself was the sole heiress of herown. Human interests and projects combined, therefore, with the noblest deeds of the soul to exalt in thismother's heart a sentiment that is always so strong in the hearts of women. She had brought up this son with theutmost difficulty, and with infinite pains, which rendered the youth still dearer to her; a score of times thedoctors had predicted his death, but, confident in her own presentiments, her own unfailing hope, she had thehappiness of seeing him come safely through the perils of childhood, with a constitution that was everimproving, in spite of the warnings of the Faculty.Thanks to her constant care, this son had grown and developed so much, and so gracefully, that at twenty yearsof age, he was thought a most elegant cavalier at Versailles. Madame de Dey possessed a happiness which doesnot always crown the efforts and struggles of a mother. Her son adored her; their souls understood each otherwith fraternal sympathy. If they had not been bound by nature's ties, they would instinctively have felt for eachother that friendship of man to man, which is so rarely to be met in this life. Appointed sub-lieutenant of dragoons, at the age of eighteen, the young Comte de Dey had obeyed the point of honor of the period byfollowing the princes of the blood in their emigration.Thus Madame de Dey, noble, rich, and the mother of an emigre, could not be unaware of the dangers of hercruel situation. Having no other desire than to preserve a fortune for her son, she renounced the happiness of emigrating with him; and when she read the vigorous laws by virtue of which the Republic daily confiscated theproperty of emigres, she congratulated herself on that act of courage; was she not guarding the property of herson at the peril of her life? And when she heard of the terrible executions ordered by the Convention, she sleptin peace, knowing that her sole treasure was in safety, far from danger, far from scaffolds. She took pleasure inbelieving that they had each chosen the wisest course, a course which would save to HIM both life and fortune.With this secret comfort in her mind, she was ready to make all the concessions required by those evil days, andwithout sacrificing either her dignity as a woman, or her aristocratic beliefs, she conciliated the good-will of those about her. Madame de Dey had fully understood the difficulties that awaited her on coming to Carentan.To seek to occupy a leading position would be daily defiance to the scaffold; yet she pursued her even way.Sustained by her motherly courage, she won the affections of the poor by comforting indiscriminately allmiseries, and she made herself necessary to the rich by assisting their pleasures. She received the procureur of the commune, the mayor, the judge of the district court, the public prosecutor, and even the judges of therevolutionary tribunal.The first four of these personages, being bachelors, courted her with the hope of marriage, furthering their causeby either letting her see the evils they could do her, or those from which they could protect her. The publicprosecutor, previously an attorney at Caen, and the manager of the countess's affairs, tried to inspire her withlove by an appearance of generosity and devotion; a dangerous attempt for her. He was the most to be fearedamong her suitors. He alone knew the exact condition of the property of his former client. His passion wasincreased by cupidity, and his cause was backed by enormous power, the power of life and death throughout thedistrict. This man, still young, showed so much apparent nobleness and generosity in his proceedings thatMadame de Dey had not yet been able to judge him. But, disregarding the danger that attends all attempts atsubtilty with Normans, she employed the inventive wit and slyness which Nature grants to women in opposingthe four rivals one against the other. By thus gaining time, she hoped to come safe and sound to the end of thenational troubles. At this period, the royalists in the interior of France expected day by day that the Revolutionwould be ended on the morrow. This conviction was the ruin of very many of them.

In spite of these difficulties, the countess had maintained her independence very cleverly until the day when, byan inexplicable imprudence, she closed her doors to her usual evening visitors. Madame de Dey inspired sogenuine and deep an interest, that the persons who called upon her that evening expressed extreme anxiety onbeing told that she was unable to receive them. Then, with that frank curiosity which appears in provincialmanners, they inquired what misfortune, grief, or illness afflicted her. In reply to these questions, an oldhousekeeper named Brigitte informed them that her mistress had shut herself up in her room and would see noone, not even the servants of the house. The semi-cloistral existence of the inhabitants of a little town creates soinvincible a habit of analyzing and explaining the actions of their neighbors, that after compassionatingMadame de Dey (without knowing whether she were happy or unhappy), they proceeded to search for thereasons of this sudden retreat."If she were ill," said the first Inquisitive, "she would have sent for the doctor; but the doctor has been all daylong playing chess with me. He told me, laughing, that in these days there was but one malady, and that wasincurable."This joke was cautiously uttered. Men, women, old men, and young girls, all set to work to explore the vastfield of conjecture. The next day, conjectures became suspicions. As life is all aboveboard in a little town, thewomen were the first to learn that Brigitte had made larger purchases than usual in the market. This fact couldnot be disputed: Brigitte had been seen there, very early in the morning; and, extraordinary event! she hadbought the only hare the market afforded. Now all the town knew that Madame de Dey did not like game. Thehare became, therefore, the point of departure for a vast array of suspicions. The old men who were taking theirwalks abroad, remarked a sort of concentrated activity about Madame de Dey's premises, shown by the veryprecautions which the servants took to conceal it. The foot- man was beating a carpet in the garden. The daybefore, no one would have noticed that fact; but the carpet now became a corner-stone on which the whole townbuilt up its theories. Each individual had his or her surmise.The second day, on learning that Madame de Dey declared herself ill, the principal personages of Carentan,assembled in the evening at the house of the mayor's brother, an old married merchant, a man of strict integrity,greatly respected, and for whom Madame de Dey had shown much esteem. There all the aspirants for the handof the rich widow had a tale to tell that was more or less probable; and each expected to turn to his own profitthe secret event which he thus recounted. The public prosecutor imagined a whole drama to result in the returnby night of Madame de Dey's son, the emigre. The mayor was convinced that a priest who refused the oath hadarrived from La Vendee and asked for asylum; but the day being Friday, the purchase of a hare embarrassed thegood mayor not a little. The judge of the district court held firmly to the theory of a Chouan leader or a body of Vendeans hotly pursued. Others were convinced that the person thus harbored was a noble escaped from theParis prisons. In short, they all suspected the countess of being guilty of one of those generosities, which thelaws of the day called crimes, and punished on the scaffold. The public prosecutor remarked in a low voice thatit would be best to say no more, but to do their best to save the poor woman from the abyss toward which shewas hurrying."If you talk about this affair," he said, "I shall be obliged to take notice of it, and search her house, and THEN--"He said no more, but all present understood what he meant.The sincere friends of Madame de Dey were so alarmed about her, that on the morning of the third day, theprocureur-syndic of the commune made his wife write her a letter, urging her to receive her visitors as usual thatevening. Bolder still, the old merchant went himself in the morning to Madame de Dey's house, and, strong inthe service he wanted to render her, he insisted on seeing her, and was amazed to find her in the gardengathering flowers for her vases."She must be protecting a lover," thought the old man, filled with sudden pity for the charming woman.